Bermuda?s housing supremo David Burch is calling for a clampdown on people who keep apartments empty after figures showed the emergency housing list is on the up.

He believes people who keep flats unrented just to get the assessment number to run a second car should pay a premium rather than get land tax breaks because they have a second apartment.

Bermuda Housing Corporation?s emergency housing list now stands at 103 ? up from 68 in October last year.

Lt. Col. Burch, in his first major interview since taking over the chairmanships of both the Bermuda Housing Corporation and the West End Development Corporation in August, told : ?We are in a greater crisis. I see it as urgent ? it cannot be left.?

Government is committed to helping provide more than 300 units within the next two and a half years but Lt. Col. Burch wants to get more private sector apartments back into use.

Far too many units are kept empty so families can get around the one-car per household rule and run a second car with the separate assessment number, said Lt. Col. Burch.

?We have been lobbying Government ? because it is way outside of our remit ? but it would directly help us if they do something to remove the discount homeowners get for the second apartment on their land tax.

?Also as a transport exercise ? if no-one is registered as renting that apartment you can?t have a car registered there.

?And thirdly, I think you should have to pay a premium for electing to have you apartment empty in a country our size with a limited land mass.

?I don?t know how much favour that will get from Government but I haven?t been turfed out of their office. It?s food for thought.

?We have to address those who continue to leave units vacant. Some of those will continue to do so and Government revenue will increase.

?Others will say ?I ain?t giving another dime to the Government? and will rent them out so you achieve your aim and some of the pressure on the rental market will come down.?

He reminded landlords of Government?s offer to handle rentals for them. Rents are guaranteed and BHC will even return the property in as good or better condition than before a tenant was put in.

?The landlord doesn?t have the hassle of dealing with a tenant.?

Lt. Col. Burch resigned from Wedco and the Bermuda Housing Corporation in May in frustration over lack of action but returned three months later with new powers.

He is now Chairman of Wedco and BHC but must wait to take over at the Bermuda Land Development Company (BLDC) because, as a limited liability company, a handover of power must wait until next month?s AGM.

?There are two shareholders ? the Ministry of Finance and the Premier who traditionally, since its inception, has delegated his responsibility to a Minister.?

Lt. Col. Burch was persuaded to come back to BHC and Wedco by Housing Minister Ashfield DeVent. He said of his earlier attempt: ?I can?t take this marking time business. I don?t think it was anybody?s fault other than the bureaucracies just don?t like to budge.

?The Minister called and said he shared my frustration.?

Lt. Col. Burch said his previous stint at BHC had seen him up against sister bureaucracies.

?The most attractive thing about this is having responsibility for all three. You are not a one man band.

?One of the aspects of my agreeing to do this is that I reported to the Minister but there would be a fair amount of autonomy. I am not the type of person who will agree to this and then let someone sit on my shoulder and say do this, do that, do the other.

?I am going to make decisions for you. Tell me what you want at the end of the day and I will give it to you, but don?t tell me me how to get there. I don?t operate that way.?

The report on quangos put forward various options for cutting red tape including putting all the residential housing under one entity or amalgamating all three quangos noted Lt. Col. Burch.

?At the very least it is clear that one of the organisations will disappear. I think my views are well know that residential organisations have to come under one umbrella.?

Less than one month after retaking office Lt. Col. Burch was hit with the news that the 196-home Harbourside Village project on Government land on Southside was in jeopardy after non-profit organisation Bermuda Homes for People collapsed.

Project manager John Gaston had pointed the finger at BLDC which he said refused to hand over 18 acres of harbour-front property in St. David?s.

Lt. Col. Burch said the project was key to reaching the target of providing more than 300 homes.

He said: ?I am frustrated we are over a year behind. I don?t know who gets the blame for that.

?Because I am not responsible for BLDC yet and I have enough on my plate, I have not intervened ? deliberately. They are in the process of figuring out what the hell they should do.

?I don?t think they should have the irritation of somebody standing in the wings saying ?what the hell are you doing???

Now he is keenly waiting to see what BLDC is planning.

?I am confident it will proceed in some way, shape or form. Those who participating in the lottery shouldn?t write it off just yet.?

Lt. Col. Burch said he is confident the project won?t up having the affordable home element reduced.

And he said the concept of selling higher price homes to subsidise the cost of affordable ones was something BHC was looking to replicate.

That mix allowed BHC to borrow privately rather than raid Government coffers for every development.